Former Fed Official Violated Trading Rules, Disclosures Show

Adriana D. Kugler, who stepped down as a governor in August, reported trades in stocks, including Apple and Southwest Airlines, in 2024.

Adriana Kugler, wearing a white blazer and patterned scarf, sits at a table with microphones.

Adriana Kugler at the Federal Reserve board meeting in June.

Adriana D. Kugler, who abruptly stepped down from her role as a governor at the Federal Reserve in August, repeatedly violated the central bank’s trading rules, according to a report from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released on Saturday.

The new disclosures showed multiple purchases and sales of shares in individual stocks including Apple, Southwest Airlines and Cava, a restaurant group — many of which took place during the so-called blackout period ahead of policy meetings in which officials are not allowed to make such trades.

Ms. Kugler specified in the disclosure forms that the transactions were carried out by her husband without her knowledge and that “her spouse did not intend to violate any rules or policies.” Ms. Kugler is married to Ignacio Donoso, an immigration attorney.

The Fed tightened trading rules in 2022 after several policymakers were found to have been actively participating in financial markets while the central bank was taking aggressive steps to support the economy at the onset of the pandemic. Two presidents at the regional reserve banks in Boston and Dallas resigned in 2021 over the controversy. Trades made by Richard H. Clarida, the vice chair, also drew scrutiny. Mr. Clarida stepped down in January 2022.

Raphael W. Bostic, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, violated the rules as well and had to correct his disclosure forms. The central bank’s internal watchdog concluded in 2024 that his transactions created the appearance of benefiting from confidential information. He announced on Wednesday that he would retire at the end of February.

The rules, which apply to other senior members of the Fed as well as policymakers’ spouses and children, bar trades in individual companies and limit purchases to mutual funds and other diversified investments. They also banned trading in cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange and commodities. Transactions during the roughly two-week period before policymakers gather to vote on interest rates had long been prohibited.

Ms. Kugler’s disclosures clear up some of the questions around her unexpected exit from the Fed months before her term was set to expire in January. At the time, she said she was leaving to return to Georgetown University to teach.

Her departure came at a tumultuous time for the Fed as it navigated a litany of attacks from President Trump, who has long wanted the central bank to lower interest rates more aggressively. Since returning to the White House, the president has repeatedly berated Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, for his handling of the economy and has looked for new ways to pressure the central bank.

Some of the improper trades were flagged to the Fed’s internal watchdog in early 2025. That came after meetings that Ms. Kugler had with compliance officers at the central bank in the fall of 2024 about the institution’s trading rules and the process to disclose transactions, according to a Fed official.

This is not the first time Ms. Kugler violated the Fed’s trading rules. She said in a financial disclosure form in 2024 that four trades in individual stocks “were carried out by my spouse, without my knowledge, and I affirm that my spouse did not intend to violate any rules.”

The new disclosures detail a number of transactions involving the same company that occurred within weeks of one another. Ms. Kugler reported the purchase of shares in Cava just a week before the policy meeting on March 19-20 and selling on April 5. Cava stock was bought and sold twice more by May 15.

Southwest Airlines stock was purchased on March 22 and then sold the day before the two-day meeting that began on April 30. Between $100,000 and $250,000 in shares of Apple were purchased in April as well.

She also disclosed roughly $41,000 in pro bono legal services from Arnold & Porter, a Washington law firm. As a governor, Ms. Kugler was paid an annual salary of $183,100.

The disclosures for 2024 were initially due in May, a deadline met by all of the policymakers except Ms. Kugler, who had requested an extension. The Fed’s ethics officers declined to certify that the forms complied with the Fed’s policies.

Days before the July 29-30 policy meeting, Ms. Kugler asked Mr. Powell to grant her a waiver so that she could trade during the blackout period in order to get rid of impermissible holdings, the official said. That request was denied.

Despite participating in several of the Fed’s briefings ahead of the July gathering, Ms. Kugler did not attend the meeting. Her absence was announced by the Fed the morning the meeting was set to begin, citing a “personal matter.” On Aug. 1, Ms. Kugler announced her resignation. She had served as a governor since September 2023 after being nominated by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Ms. Kugler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Her departure from the Fed gave Mr. Trump an opening to appoint one of his top economic advisers to the Fed, Stephen I. Miran, who has in his first two meetings called for aggressive cuts to borrowing costs.

The president tried to force another opening just weeks later by attempting to oust Lisa D. Cook, a governor, over allegations that she committed mortgage fraud before joining the Fed. The Supreme Court recently ruled that Ms. Cook could stay on in her role at the Fed as the case is being litigated. The judges will hear arguments in January.

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